Deposition of thin films on a substrate surface is an important process in a variety of industries including semiconductor processing, diffusion barrier coatings and dielectrics for magnetic read/write heads. In the semiconductor industry, in particular, miniaturization requires atomic level control of thin film deposition to produce conformal coatings on high aspect ratio structures.
Conformal coverage with low pattern loading effect of dielectric films on high aspect ratio structures is a critical requirement as device nodes shrink down to below 45 nm. Furthermore, silicon nitride thin films are a commonly used dielectric throughout the semiconductor industry, but there is increasing needs for dielectric materials with lower dielectric constant (k) values and with lower etch rates in acid-based clean solutions.
Silicon carbide (oxy)nitride (SiCON/SiCN) films can exhibit some of these favorable qualities, but deposition of SiCON/SiCN films from furnace processes has several drawbacks. For example, these drawbacks include a high temperature requirement (≧550° C.), few capabilities to engineer film compositions and bonding structures. These properties impact wet etch resistance and electrical stability during thermal cycling for front-end of line (FEOL) applications. Films deposited via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) at lower temperature have poor step coverage due to directionality of the radicals' fluxes.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods for depositing various Si containing films such as SiCN.